Shots in the Dark
by planetkiller
Summary: Kavanagh talks about his past with a scientist whose life he saved.


**DISCLAIMER: **I own nothing. _Stargate: Atlantis_ and its characters, plots, and ideas belong to SciFi among others. One of the original characters is named after William Calihan. He was a producer on _Hogan's Heroes_. Written for the kavtolanon 'secrets' challenge on livejournal. (emergencyfan safe)

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Kavanagh stepped onto the planet and decided he hated karma. It wasn't his fault he kicked somebody's puppy in a past life so why did he have to be punished for it? As it started to pour, Kavanagh realised that he must have married that somebody's sister, too. 

"Come on, Kavanagh!" came a bellow from up the path. Kavanagh reached down and hoisted the microscope case wondering when he had sat it down. Grumbling, he followed Atlantis's personal centre of the universe into the woods.

"Bet you anything that if we weren't here Mr. Wonderful would be complaining about the rain," he muttered to a scientist he vaguely recognised. The scientist looked at him in fear for a moment. He ducked his head and rushed forward. Kavanagh sighed as he followed him down the path. "Why is there a perfect forest break here? That doesn't happen naturally. Somebody would have to cut trees down or something..." He trailed off and wondered why a chemist needed to come to planet Natives-Cultivate-Poo to help figure out what was powering a communication device they used to talk to their trading partners about the poo.

"Who's Mr. Wonderful?"

"What?" Kavanagh squawked as he was suddenly jolted out of his thoughts.

"Who's Mr. Wonderful? I don't think I was ever introduced to him." Kavanagh looked around for who was speaking, but was unable to find anybody.

"I meant the great and powerful McKay," he muttered to no one.

"Oh...you must really like Dr. McKay." Kavanagh waited for the sarcasm that didn't seem to be coming. "Since, you...keep calling him all the nice names."

"What? Are you stupid or something?"

"I don't think so. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here, would I?" The scientist from earlier looked back at him and smiled. "Supposedly only the best get chosen for this. And according to Representative Quinn, I'm one of the best." Kavanagh appraised the scientist quickly.

"So you're his wife's nephew?"

"What? No! No!" The unnamed scientist smiled, not realising he was being made fun of. "Actually, my sister's his secretary, but I think that's just a coincidence. I mean, naquadria engineering is the same no matter where you are, right?" He frowned suddenly and Kavanagh suddenly felt a surge of liking for the weird man. "At least, I think it is. I've not been everywhere yet so I can't really say anything for..." The man stopped suddenly as he looked down in confusion at the red spot spreading on his chest. "Huh." With that he hit his knees as Hell broke loose.

"Get back to the 'Gate! Go! Move!" McKay yelled as he and one of the other scientists, a botanist Kavanagh didn't know, started shooting into the surrounding vegetation. Panicked scientists threw down their equipment and pelted back the way they had came. Kavanagh shook himself out of his daze and grabbed the scientist still laying at his feet. He thought back and remembered how a person with a chest wound was supposed to be carried; he wasn't surprised he remembered. The dash back to the 'Gate was the second-longest trip of his life.

The long-haired scientist came through into Zelenka and Weir shrieking for information, sobbing and panicking scientists, and Marines who were trying to ring the platform.

"Get a medic! A doctor! Somebody with medical experience!" he bellowed over the din. Someone, maybe Biro, rushed over as he sat the suddenly smaller scientists down. "I'm not positive but I think it missed the lung. I don't hear any wind-like sounds anyway so I'm fairly certain he's safe in that regard." As a second doctor came forward, Kavanagh moved back before turning to survey the room. With a sick shock, he realised that he looked more like a marine than a scientist.

SGASGASGASGASGA

"How you doing, Calihan?" Kavanagh asked as he pulled a chair closer to the infirmary bed.

"Please, call me William. I'm fine. Thanks to you apparently," the scientist smiled weakly. "Dr. Beckett said that if it wasn't for you, I'd be going back to Pangara in a pinebox." Kavanagh was obviously uncomfortable so the man coughed quietly while deciding if he should ask the question that had been burning his brain. "How did you..."

"It's a very long story and I don't..." Kavanagh had risen when Calihan had asked the question, but he didn't move toward the door like the latter had expected. The chemist looked at the man in the bed and noticed how pale and sickly he looked. "If you ever tell anyone what I'm about to tell you, you _will_ be going back to Pangara in a pinebox."

SGASGASGASGASGA

I'm not entirely sure why I was on the planet in the first place; presumably, one of the Area-51 research teams thought they needed a chemist and picked me to go along. I have several blank spots so I don't know how I got separated from the rest of the team or when the natives picked me up or really who the natives were. The first thing I really remember is the sergeant being shot.

She was tall for a girl, about 5'9" or 5'10." I remember that because of the way she hit the ground. It wasn't like the way you feel; staring down in shock before hitting your knees and actually falling. She fell almost as soon as the sound of the shot reached my ears. The sergeant was trying to move me back to the 'Gate and had been in front of me when she had been hit.

"Yo, Doc! Check the sarge!" the rude one with the vulgar vocabulary yelled from the other side of the clearing. Not really thinking I dragged her about a foot and a half so we were behind a big rock. It may have been a boulder, but geology isn't my field. I crouched down beside her, staring into her face. The sergeant was shivering violently, struggling to breathe. That horrifying whistling noise she made will haunt me to my dying day. As her face turned a blotchy colour, she reached out and grabbed my wrist. For someone who looked so small, her grip was incredibly strong. Slowly, the sergeant removed her gun from the thigh holster and aimed it. I closed my eyes; waiting for her to shoot me.

A shot rang out and I spun around. Laying a short distance from our position was a native whom had obviously being sneaking up behind me. I felt a soft tug on my jacket and realised she was trying to move me behind her. I took up the position as she pushed the weapon into my hand. Wrapping her left hand around my wrist, the sergeant pointed the gun in my hand at the nearest foliage. She squeezed my wrist softly, signalling that I was to pull the trigger. I don't know how long we continued in this manner, but it must have been a long time as she continually grew weaker. Suddenly, I heard the whoosh of the 'Gate behind me.

"Grab Angel and go!" a voice yelled near my ear. I picked up the girl, instinctively knowing how to move her without injuring her further. I ran as fast as I could as the natives continued to shoot after me with their primitive projectile weapons. It was the longest trip of my life.

The next thing I remember I was standing outside the briefing room preparing to go in when I heard loud voices. Being a curious person by nature, and not a sneaky fink no matter what the others say, I placed my ear to the door.

"But, sir, you don't understand!" a vaguely familiar voice was shrieking.

"What don't I understand?" General Hammond's deep, Texan rumble snapped back.

"Sarge's gun! She doesn't use standard issue! Hell, she doesn't normally care an actual gun, sir; normally, it's a zat!" The first voice sounded almost hysterical. "But when she does carry a gun, it's one similar to the controller on _Area 51_!"

"What?" the confused general thundered.

"It's lighter and only fires six shots at a time! How did Sarge managed to shoot sixteen natives with six bullets?" I knocked on the door and entered.

"General Hammond."

"Dr. Kavanagh, according to Dr. Fraiser, you have memory loss so I only have one question for you: when did you dial the 'Gate and why did you take the sergeant to the 'Gate without orders?"

"I never dialled the 'Gate! And I did have orders! Somebody told me to grab her and run so I did!" I snapped. The Asian man held up his hand to forestall the general.

"It's probably false memories created by memory loss, sir." I turned to yell at him when the general dismissed me.

I retreated from the room and headed down to the infirmary. The on-duty nurse didn't even glance up from her paperwork when I walked in.

"She's still in surgery. We'll tell Davis Thomas as soon as she gets out; just speak to him and I'm sure he'll be willing to tell you." She wrote something on one of the charts as she silently dismissed me.

MMMMM

"I'd ask how you feel, but I can guess." Pale and drawn, the young woman looked even younger in the hospital bed. She cracked a grin and attempted to laugh, but the tube down her throat kept her from doing that. She pulled a dry erase board to her and scribbled quickly.

"Thank you."

"What are you talking about? You're the one who saved my life." She furrowed her brow at me. "You shot the natives, Angel." She started at that. I waited patiently as she scribbled.

"Where did you hear that?" the board said.

"Angel?"She nodded. "The voice. The one that told me to grab you and run." The sergeant frowned at me before scribbling some more. I had to take the board from her because she had squeezed so much into such a small space.

"That's not our name. Our 'sister' is special and she can't pronounce our real name. And for some reason, she refuses to call us 'Anni.' She and our 'brother' are the only ones who call us that. And they're both dead." Her use of quotations around "sister" and "brother" and the way she referred to herself as more than one person threw me, but I decided to ignore it.

"You know, that's not the only weird thing that happened out there. The Asian guy says nobody dialled the 'Gate or ordered us to run. And apparently, you shot sixteen people with a gun that only holds six bullets. A gun you don't normally carry." We stared at each other for a moment. She scribbled furiously for a bit.

"This is going to sound crazy."

"You're on the search and rescue team; of course it's going to sound crazy," I said smiling at her. The sergeant rolled her eyes and scribbled some more.

"We thought we saw our 'brother.'"

"Your dead brother?" She nodded. I paused for a moment as I thought about what she had said. "Let's not talk about it. Ever." The sergeant smiled and wrote on her board once again.

"You're our hero. But we're tired." I inclined my head as I rose and turned away.

SGASGASGASGASGA

"That's how I knew that you hadn't been hit in the lungs. And how to carry you. Nobody will believe it and you're not going to say anything to anyone. Got it?" Kavanagh snarled at Calihan.

"I don't see why--"

"You're not going to say anything, right?"

"Of course not, Dr. Kavanagh." Kavanagh stood up and went to leave. "Thank you," the scientist called from the bed. The chemist continued toward the door as if he hadn't heard anything but he stopped in front of the exit.

"If they knew I believed in God and was actually a decent person, they'd like me," he said to the door. "I know you don't understand it, Calihan, but I can't have anyone like me. My job won't allow it."

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**A/N:** _Constructive_ criticism appreciated. 


End file.
